Ode & Psyche Podcast

Latest Episodes:

The Human Cry: loneliness with the other Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

The human cry I’ve been mapping in poetry– our loneliness, the suffering of the poet who feels so impossibly cut-off from the world, who is aware of the aloneness, taps into the presence of the unseen. A craft talk I’m about the give at Sarah Lawrence, lifted from several works on Rilke, Frost, Plath, Lucille […]

The Black Sun Part I: for the depressive theist position Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

Some of the psychoanalytic returns, passing through the black hole sun. “But they were still asleep…” –Nerval. If you are here you can think through this knot with me, perhaps. (SO insane to put such a melody at the end….) But may you have a rare vision in tonight’s dream if you arrive at it. […]

Between the Idea & The Reality: TS ELIOT, the words information, the mystery of tone Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Here is the famous T.S. Eliot poem, The Hollow Men. There is rain at dawn, and some birds. And one might pause over how the same words hold between poets, across continents, at different time periods; the rose in Eliot and the rose in Rilke, the tone of a Franz Wright rose and the tone […]

Strange Functions of the Professional Poet Jul 10, 2026

Show notes

However well the poet bears the unclear word within themselves, they are dedicated to precision. To arrive without fully knowing one’s function in language, but utter faith in it nonetheless. An episode riffing off a lecture to some education retirees the other day & the function of the poet in the world. The Laureates out […]

Where Rilke Died Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

“Silent friend[s] of many distances,” I write to you from the mountains where Rilke wrote his final elegies and the whole of the Sonnets to Orpheus. I am thankful to the Dartmouth Leslie Center Faculty Research Fellowship funds for their support. Someone in Berlin said to me, You’re going to where there are cow bells. […]

On-Site with Rilke’s Muzot: a promo Jun 18, 2026

Show notes

“Silent friend[s] of many distances,” I write to you from the mountains where Rilke wrote in final elegies and the whole of the Sonnets to Orpheus. I am thankful to the Dartmouth Leslie Center Faculty Research Fellowship funds for their support. Listen to the promo and follow link to follow on Patreon and hear it […]

The Poetry of Larry Levis May 24, 2026

Show notes

We’re talking today with Mathias Svalina and David St. John about the new collected Larry Levis book Swirl and Vortex, which has just come out from Graywolf Press. Mathias has been a long-time reader and scholar of Levis’ work, and so I knew I needed him on here today. He’s been on this podcast many […]

Poetry’s Knowing Ignorance: with Joseph Acquisto Mar 22, 2026

Show notes

“What kind of knowledge, if any, does poetry provide?” Joseph Acquisto, French language and poetry professor at the University of Vermont, asks in his incredible book, Poetry’s Knowing Ignorance (Bloomsbury). Friedrich Schlegel said that “one can say that it’s a distinguishing mark of poetical genius to know a great deal more than he knows he […]

God Talks to Each of Us: Paul Celan and Rilke Mar 09, 2026

Show notes

Bianca Stone talks with Mathias Svalina and Ben Pease about two poems, Paul Celan’s posthumously published book Schneepart, “I HEAR THE AXE HAS FLOWERED,” and “[God Talks to Each of Us as He Makes Us]”. https://www.mathiassvalina.com

Bianca’s New Book! An interview (bonus video on site) Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

There is a tension in the poet’s longing towards the complete book, wanting not to be too swept up in the commercialism, yet needing some kind of readership to engage with the poems. As poetry has evolved from the utterance from the mouth alone, and has changed and moved with technology over the centuries, consciousness […]

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